❥៚ ⁱ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʷʰᵃᵗ ᵗᵒ ˢᵃʸ

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6. SAIKI KUSUO

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That night, a psychic named Saiki Kusou threw up on someone's roof. The boy vowed not to speak a single word about what he did that night, lest he endanger himself to the teasing of his...acquaintances.

The demon that had come out of the corner was not very pleasing to the eyes. In fact, the demon looked absolutely horrifying.

Saiki felt his entire body shiver at the sight. Bloodied talons. Wrinkled skin. And a tongue so long it could probably reach the demon's feet if it had tried to. Yet, the psychic kept his nerve and continued watching.

[L/N] who had sent the bird away, clutched the handle of her katana tightly, "Hey! Where's your buddy? The bald one?" She asked, stupidly confident of herself.

The demon who had finally slithered his way out the wall snarled at the girl, "Watch your tone human. I am not someone you can just recklessly lash your tongue around with."

The girl gawked at the demon in surprise, "Well...I never expected elegant words to come out of someone looking like that." 

Saiki didn't know if the girl should've been saying all those things out loud. Especially since the demon didn't take kindly to those words and snarled even harder at her minor offense.

The demon chose to ignore [L/N]'s words and continued, "So, Demon Slayer, what has made you visit me?"

[L/N] looked at the demon, her mouth agape. "Are you seriously about to hold a conversation in a life-or-death situation?"

"Well, I've always enjoyed conversing with humans more than my brothers," the demon admitted.

"Touche." The girl agreed, "but brothers?" [L/N] questioned, "I wasn't aware that demons had familial ties."

That was a lie. Saiki knew it was a lie. In fact, the girl had known the tragic end of Daki and Gyutaro, two demon siblings who until the end were loyal to their blood and fought with all their might. In order to extract information, one must play the part of a curious cat. 

The demon shook his head, "Not by blood but by vow. There are five of us."

"I see," [L/N] said taking note, "And is perhaps a demon baldie with really red wrinkly skin a part of your brotherhood?"

The demon took a moment, "No. We do not have such a demon in our group."

"Shame," the girl replied, disappointed at the fact. 

"So," the demon began, "answer my question, human. What has pushed you to find for me?"

[L/N] clutched her katana once more, alarming the demon—who snarled in response. The red-tinted blade reflecting the moonlight sent shivers down the demon's spine.

'If I am not careful, I might forfeit my life today,' the demon thought. Even the strongest of demons would fear death. Especially death by beheading with a nichirin blade. If one wields their blade righteously and wisely then the most impenetrable defenses could crumble down. 

Saiki was grateful to know that regardless of its unnatural humanoid form, he could still read its mind, allowing him to predict any other movement. On second thought, Saiki wasn't sure if he was grateful to hear the thoughts of the demon. It was thinking of ways on how it could brutally maul [L/N] and quite vividly too.

"Well, does missing children ring a bell? What about dead missing children? Maybe, children, you've kidnapped and killed and feasted on?" The girl replied snarkily.

The demon growled, "Hold your tongue!" It snarled, "I have warned you that I am not someone to be easily trifled with!"

"And so are humans! You are so up there on your throne that you've forgotten you were human too!" [L/N] exclaimed, her grip on the katana handle becoming tighter.

The demon scoffed, "It is natural for a demon to eat a human. We are powerful beings. Beings your brain cannot fathom"

"Natural! Natural the idiot says!" [L/N] shouted incredulously, "Not at all! You are all disgusting vile creatures of the dark who hide behind the grandiose feeling of superiority just because you were a coward and guess what? You still are!"

"You are cutting it close human," the demon warned, "one more word and I shall swipe that neck off your shoulders."

"Hah! I dare you to!" [L/N] challenged, "You are all but cowards. Humans who turned their back on humanity and resorted to cannibalism. I'll be damned if I let any of your kind live. And, side note, before you can even come an inch close to me, I'll have your head on the ground."

"Your words have tired out my patience."

"No need for the fancy words, just tell me you want to die straight up."

The girl lunged at the demon, quickly unsheathing her blade and with a downward motion unleashed her first move. 

First Form: Unknowing Fire! 

A blaze of red seemed to become vivid in the girl's mind but to Saiki, it was just an old plain katana swing that was ferocious. 

 The demon dodged to the right, avoiding the incoming attack, and immediately followed with a counter-attack, with his claws he swiped at the air. A gust of the wind formed from the force, followed by waves of blood that resembled the claw swipe of a lion. [L/N] jumped into the air, a second late, the demon's attack had torn a part of her haori. It left the bottom part with an uneven pattern. 

[L/N] didn't mind and used the height to her advantage to deliver another blow, with her hand tightly gripping the katana, she delivered another powerful attack. This time she hoped that it would weaken the demon a bit. 

Third Form: Blazing Universe!

A downward swing accompanied by a burst of flames was directed at the demon. And this time, the demon did not come out unscathed. Sacrificing his left arm, the demon was able to escape his impending doom but not for long. [L/N] was not a person to be easily satisfied and immediately followed with another attack. Rotating her katana at a rapid speed, she achieved a whirlwind of brilliant fire. Although, she knew the attack she used was a weaker version of the original but nevertheless, it was still strong. 

The demon dodged again but barely. This time, not skipping a beat, released another one of his demon blood arts. 

Blood Demon Art: Clone. 

Pools of black started to surround the girl. The demon retreated a few meters back, recovering from the onslaught of the attacks he received. [L/N] couldn't help but freeze, unaware of what the black pools were and what might happen to her if she would move.

Then, the same gnarly wrinkled hand came out and the Demon Slayer finally realized what the black pools were. 

'Motherfucker! Did he create copies of himself? If so, how many?' She cursed in her mind, 'Dammit! Do they still have the same skills as the original? Shit. Shit. No, it's fine. Keep cool. Read their attacks. Dominate the battlefield. Just like what Yushiro taught.'

At that point, Saiki had stood up, he had been contemplating whether he should help his classmate or not. Yes, dealing with the demon would be easy for him but he had been so shocked by the appearance of one that his instincts had told him to run away. Saiki wasn't sure if his powers wouldn't work on something unnatural. Something not human. 

But, with the given time, he examined the demon, conducting little experiments in the fight. Perhaps something like anchoring the demon to the ground so [L/N] could get a hit in and chop a limb off. And with enough scrutiny, Saiki was finally confident that he could aid [L/N] in her battle. 

He watched as the girl defended herself from the other two demon clones. She had already killed the first clone prematurely. Just as it was about to get out of the hole, she brutally jammed her katana in and killed it. Unfortunately, [L/N] wasn't able to do the same thing for the other two clones by the time she finished killing the first one, the other two were almost out of the hole. Half of their body was already out. 

She took a chance and lunged for the nearest demon near her but it caught her arm and flung her to a wall. The force took the air out of her and the crash worsened the headache she was slowly developing from her cold. 

'Motherfucker...'

Saiki couldn't wait any longer and prepared to jump down but a certain bird intercepted him, Ryu. 

"Caw! Who are you? Strange human!" the bird exclaimed, "You. You are weird. Something is wrong. I must stop you from-"

Saiki would have listened more with his blank face staring at the bird if it wasn't for the third demon clone lunging at the girl with both its claws in full display, ready to kill. 

'Later,' Saiki told Ryu. 

The boy quickly teleported in between the girl and the demon. Letting his psychic powers go wild, he stopped all the demons, forcing them onto the ground. Letting their body get crushed by the gravity of his powers. The clones went away with only ashes in their place

"You...what...are...you?" The original demon coughed out. Its clones disappeared the moment its concentration faltered.

Saiki didn't pay the demon any mind and instead amplified the gravity. The demon coughed out blood. 

[L/N] stared at the boy dumbfounded. She had been leaning on the wall, her katana still pointed out, ready to attack the clone that was no longer there. "Pinkie--no--Saiki? Saiki Kusuo? Is that you?"

 Saiki turned to look at the girl, her head was caked with blood from the impact and bruises were starting the form. From his old vantage point, her wounds didn't look severe but up close...it was a different story. 

'Are you okay?' The boy asked telepathically. 

"Am I okay? I'm good. Yeah fine." The girl paused, "No. Wait a minute did you just talk in my- never mind that's not important right now. I'll deal with you later but keep the demon in place. I have some questions for them."

[L/N] walked over to the demon, lugging her heavy body towards it. She was nearly about to collapse if Saiki hadn't intervened. Remembering something, she turned around to face Saiki, "Before I forget, thank you, really." Then she turned back to the demon who, by now, was wheezing and coughing. Gasping for air.  

"Well, I didn't expect our battle to be finished so fast," [L/N] greeted. "I should say that I was surprised by your clones. And I thought I was the narcissist." The girl formed a half-hearted smirk. 

"Bi..tc...h" The demon cursed out. 

"I'll have to refuse on that one. I can't take your place, now can I?" The girl smiled, "Now I have some questions, refuse to answer and I won't hesitate to play a game with you. Starts with T ends with E and has seven letters in total. Can you guess what it is?"

The demon didn't answer and instead wheezed out. His ribcage was getting crushed by the pressure. 

"Yes! That's right! it's called torture!" The girl cheered, "Now mind you, I don't like it all too much but some things must be paid with the same price. Let's start, with Question #1, where are the rest of your brothers?"

The demon stayed quiet only gasping for air.

[L/N] pouted, "Not the answer I was expecting. Has the pressure dampened your brain? If so let me repeat, where are the rest?"

"...I...don't...kno..w," The demon coughed out. 

"Are you sure about that?"

The demon could only cough out again in response. The girl frowned, "Saiki," she called out, "can you lessen the pressure just a bit?"

The psychic obliged and removed a bit of the invisible baggage on the demon's chest. "Thank you!" The girl smiled at him. 

"Now, can you tell me again why you don't know where the rest are?" [L/N] asked again.

The demon gasped, quickly inhaling air, "I don't know."

The girl sighed, "One last chance. Where are they?"

Saiki could see the girl fuming, her mind was ready to mince the demon apart but decided not to. Information was too important. Too crucial. Saiki could feel the cogs in [L/N]'s brain turn, she knew there was something bigger at play. Something that could endanger everyone in town. And the demon they caught was a rare chance for them to learn something new. Something valuable. 

"I'm telling the truth!" The demon said exasperatedly, "My brothers and I were assigned territories to govern. Each one is only allowed to stay where they are. We were told to not disclose anything, even to our own brethren."

The girl pursed her lips, guilt, and sadness mentally chaining her down. "Fine. I'll accept your reasoning but tell me this, who came up with this governing scheme? That's your second question, who is your boss?"

The demon grinned, "And what has made you think that we, demons, beings higher than you are being ordered around by another one of us? Of course, we thought of the idea! We--AHH!" 

The demon cried out as [L/N]'s nichirin blade pierced through the back of his hand. "Tell more lies and I'll make sure you suffer just as much as your victims." She threatened. 

 The demon whimpered, they were afraid. Scared. Terrified. Afraid. Afraid of a human being. A human who wielded more power than they could ever hope to have. 

[L/N]'s eyes were full of fire. A mix of hatred, sadness, regret, and pure disgust. "Tell. Me. The. Truth. And maybe I'll grant you a swift death."

"We...We don't know who he was. Or what he was. H-He was different. Powerful. My brothers and I knew he was a demon but at the same time, he felt different. Our blood. Our blood whose loyalty was only meant to be shared between us was loyal to another. He told us--He commanded us to do his bidding and we did as he told. If we didn't, we knew we'd die."

"Who is this man? Did he tell you his name? What did he look like?" [L/N] pressed on. 

The demon shakily let out a breath, "He wore a cloud-patterned haori. His hair was in a strange color, bright pink. Even when the room was dim, we could see the color of his hair seeping through the dark."

"His name? What about his name?" 

Saiki watched as [L/N] became increasingly erratic in her questioning. Constantly repeating the question. 

"What was his name!" 

"Ha-"

Before the demon could finish their sentence, his body pulsed. A dark greyish color pumping its way through their veins. And just as they realized their mistake, large veiny hands came out of the demon's mouth, chest, and torso. Blood spurted from the wounds like a fountain. A red, disgusting, and putrid sight it was to see. 

[L/N] watched as the demon cried and groaned. The pieces of their body convulsing from their sobs. All the girl could utter was, "I see...so the same rules apply." before plunging her blade into the demon, finally killing them off. 

[L/N] turned to face Saiki with an apologetic face. "I'm sorry you had to see that.  Actually, I'm sorry for getting you involved in this mess. I'm sure you'll want an explanation and I want one too, from you. But for now, I need to sleep."

The girl immediately collapsed, Saiki quickly catching her. Whilst she was in his arms, he could feel how hot the girl was and the distinct shivering of her body. She had caught a fever towards the end of the fight. 

'During the interrogation?' The boy wondered. 

He had all the time to wonder about the girl but right now his first priority was getting her treated. She was overworked and her fever was proof of that. 

So, with [L/N] in his arms, Saiki quickly teleported back to the girl's room. 

Unbeknownst to him, he had forgotten about Ryu's existence. And the poor bird had to fly all the way home. Worried sick about his friend's condition. 

0. AUTHOR'S NOTE 

I'm dying. Like literally. I had to redo this chapter twice because the dialogue just didn't seem right to me and I always felt like it was cringey. Like, understandably, most of the dialogue I have from past chapters were always cringe but it was more cringe than usual. So I spent a lot of time reimagining the scene in a way that made a conversation more easy flowing. Anyways, I'd like to know how you feel about this chapter. Also like, I know the way I refer to the demon changes a lot from it to them, I just want to say that I am absolutely lazy to redo everything and so it shall stay that way. Probably. But, anyways, that's everything. Bye y'all. Stay safe and MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONEEEEE! 

THANK U BTW FOR THE 4K READS AND THE VOTES KASDKASKDASKDSKADKSAD MADE MY FUCKING YEAR LETSSSS GOOOOOO! okay thats it. buhbyeeeee

Sidenote: Thank you to that person who commented about daki and gyutaro being in an AU made me realize that I wrote their names wrong AHAHAHAHAHAH